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I haven't finished Houen. Satoshi just got his 4th badge. But until now... I really can't think of a reason not to say this hasn't been the best league ever in the anime. (I didn't watch DP or BW yet)

In fact I'm really confuse with the whole 'original was the best' statements. The pacing of the original made me quit the anime when I was younger. The pacing of AG made me start watching it again recently.
I skip filler episodes (by filler I mean episodes that add virtually nothing to the overall plot/character development/team) and this is why I will never agree with the original lovers:

KANTO:
-Satoshi wins 6 out of 8 badges without finishing a battle.
-Kasumi: Constantly fought with Satoshi. Like the main post's example says she had virtually no development, not ever since she got Togepi. Except for her farewell and the 2-part Advanced Generations episode. She also had no goal at all. Unless you count the 'trainer beauty' talk she would pull off to justify battling someone once in a while and stalking Satoshi to get her bike back as goals.
-Skipping the fillers there were less than 10 pokemon battles (not counting sending rokketto-dan to the skies in 1 move or fighting their mechas) before the championship. Everything else has been pure randomness. Gyms included.
-Silph Co. doesn't even gets a mention.
-The Satoshi clone (Forgot his name) was a terrible excuse for a rival in my opinion. But I don't know how to explain what I didn't like about him. Probably because I felt like they tried to hard to make him friendly and kind just to push the idea of him becoming a great friend of Satoshi in few episodes. I for one was glad he was never seen again. (Up to where I watched)

+The Pokemon League itself was nice. The opening ceremony up to Satoshi's defeat made it very exciting. Back when I watched when I was younger I remember people were almost as excited about it as the World Cup.
+A lot of places/events based on the game weren't ignored. I know the anime and the game have their own plots but I like to see them sticking to the refferences since it's still the same world.
+Rokketto-dan was given some importance, even though it was quickly dropped.
+The final episodes were very well done. I doubt AG will do better, honestly.

ORANGE LEAGUE:

-Gyms basically consisted on 'minigames'.
-Kenji is... well I don't know how to put this either. But I guess since he didn't last long as Takeshi's replacement I wasn't the only one who didn't like him. Kenji had a few moments where he showed us he wasn't just a 'robot' who could make sandwiches and draw Pokemon. But oftentimes I asked myself why he was still following the team.
-Even if this part is short, half the orange league is made of fillers. It becomes surprisingly short when you skip them.
-Because the champion was a nobody that looked like a Wataru-wannabe Satoshi's victory felt a little empty. But I admit I might be exhagerating here.
-Even less battles than Kanto. Until I wrote this I was asking myself if that was even possible, but it is. I mean, it was.

+It was good to see Kenji wasn't just a Takeshi replacement until the end. He stickied in the series as Ookido's assistant and his goal became clear near the end. He's became even more bland than before since then, but I don't think his current role demands much of it anyway.
+Even if the gyms were lackluster the final battle was great. Kairyuu going against Rizadon was predictable but it wasn't bad at all. Altogether it's one of the most memorable battles.
+It was good seeing Satoshi win his first big victory. Even if by the time Joutou started it could be taken as an empty one.

JOUTO:
-I think everyone knows this. But this has arguably the worst pacing in the series history. If I remember well, more than half of Joutou's episodes are fillers. And most of the non-fillers are simply fillers with an evolution or new move tackled in to save it from the filler status.
-Kasumi loses all the little character development she had from the Kanto days. And to make things worse, Takeshi too becomes stale.
-I like Rokketo-Dan but Joutou has got to be the greatest overdose of Rokketto-Dan attacks in the entire series. Often there would be non-filler episodes with 3 attacks. Plus the writers were clearly trying to make them more of serious villains oftentimes, even though they work best as comic-relief. This contributed to making the Joutou's pacing worse.
-I found this very strange, but Joutou also happens to be (again, up to where I've watched) the season that deviated from the game, as far as important areas go, the most. I don't mind that they take a different approach in the anime, but ignoring or giving so little atention to certain little plots/areas from the game was inexcusable since Kanto (and AG) didn't deviate that much.
-Shigeru never used his Burekki against Satoshi. (Don't spoil to me in case he gets to use it latter in the series)

+Rokketto-dan was once again given some significant importance in two story arcs.
+This is when they finally start to give more focus to pokemon battles. I wasn't able to count the number of battles before the League this time! And the animation for some of the battles were great.
+I'm sorry that this doesn't contributes to anything but: I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE SHIGERU'S BUREKKI!
+Shigeru stops being a typical jerk of every cartoon show and shows he's actually maturing. Unfortunately if you only watch the 4kids version you may have a hard time realising this, since they believed for whatever reason that changing the dialogues so Gary could keep being the arrogant jerk from Kanto up til the last Joutou episodes would be better than letting him have his share of character development.
+Yogirasu turned out to be very cute. And I didn't mind that he took so many episodes for his story arc.

HOUEN:
(Note: I didn't finish the Houen league yet. Satoshi just obtained his fourth badge.)

-Masato. I don't dislike the character but one can't just ignore the fact he's sort of... he's sort of just there. He joined as the navigator but oftentimes the team leaves the navigation job to Takeshi. (Funny how that seems to always lead them to the wrong/longer road too...)
-The Muro Island episodes were very tiring. And I'm talking about the non-filler ones. (Although ONE particular Muro Isle episode was very funny)
-Satoshi somewhat seems to forget basic things he learned in the past. (I know this is a trend he will keep in future seasons)

+Even though they pretty much ditched Rokketto-Dan and ignored Silph Co. in the past, they went as far as including Magma/Aqua Dan and the Devon Corporation in the anime.
+Even if it feels like an afterthough, they come up with Nyasu's fantasies to explain why Rokketto-Dan will go after random pokemon that are featured in each episode. I picked this as a con because it adds nicely to the humor. Specially with Rokketto-Dan going back to the comic-relief seat in Houen. You know none of Nyasu's fantasies make sense but that's precisely the point.
+Masato. Why I'm including him as both con and pro? Because even if he's 'just there' as I said, he breaks the trend of the 3-man team. And I personally though it was nice to have an even younger character in the team to see things differently. He's not stealing anyone's spot (unlike Kenji tried to) either.
+Takeshi gets some active roles in certain episodes. This hasn't been done since the end of Kanto.
+Haruka. Well, I admit I'm a bit biased towards Haruka. But I'm gonna explain why:
First, I fell in love with her when she pretty much served Kasumi at her first episode. (If you don't remember/know: Satoshi accidently crisps her bike, but unlike Kasumi, Haruka gives up on scolding him about it as soon as she sees him taking care of Pikachu. And this is where she showed to be more mature and less picky than Kasumi) Second, she actually has a goal that is relevant to the watchers. And we see her actively battle for it during the entire series. (Kanto/Orange/Jouto=Series; AG/Battle Frontier=Another series) Third, she doesn't behaves like a tomboy, nor does she picks fight with Satoshi every 3 episodes. She doesn't acts like a know-it-all either. In fact we see she's a newbie and she knows it. But we also see her growing better as a coordinator, and gaining more confidence. And you know what that means right? ->Character development.
+There is absolutely no reason to complain about lack of battles. But I guess that's irrelevant by now.
+A lot of areas are featured in the anime. Even those roads from the game. And I guess that must be why they make sure to exhibit Satoshi-tachi's path in the map during the title introduction. Which makes the geography/environment less incosistant than back on the Jouto/Kanto days.
+A lot less fillers than Jouto and Kanto. (There are still some semifillers though)
+More subplots/characters from the game are featured in this series. And I'm not bringing Magma/Aqua/Devon up again. More often so than Kanto did with Red/Blue.
+While I won't lie there are some plots that feel like repeatition of certain past series' episodes, the episodes all in all had a little more variance. You didn't get a bunch of episodes in a row that was basically about Satoshi-tachi finding a stray pokemon and a random person turns out to be desperately looking/hunting/trying to catch it. I really can't see it differently: The writing has definately improved in Advanced Generation. The humour scenes included.

Actually Ash defeated Koga, Blain and lt. Surge(in rematch) and TR pokemon(Kingler, Rhydon and Machamp) in Viridian city so it was more that four badges were won properly and other four through alternative ways.

-Kasumi: Constantly fought with Satoshi. Like the main post's example says she had virtually no development, not ever since she got Togepi. Except for her farewell and the 2-part Advanced Generations episode. She also had no goal at all. Unless you count the 'trainer beauty' talk she would pull off to justify battling someone once in a while and stalking Satoshi to get her bike back as goals.

Except she became more confident and secure in her abilities as person, learned how to be more patient and became more self critic. In start she always wanted to prove being right to Ash arguing over it, with time being willing to acknowledge her own flaws and accept responsibility behind her actions. Which can be noticed in way she bond with Poliwhirl or Staryu in Johto blaming herself for forcing them too much, or when blaming herself for Gyarados going on rampage in chronicles not being sure if she is cut out for this task for example. She also became more playful and out going which can be noticed in hosos and Hoenn cameos having to grow up fast due to obligations she was given.

Got over complex of feeling less worthy which was forced on her by older sisters, became more opened to Ash and Brock starting to open herself as person and grew as trainer becoming better trainer with coming top 8 in Whirl Cup, winning Seaking contest and Alto mare race, bonding with water types like Marill, Poliwhirl, Horsea etc reflecting her improvement.
If that isn't development, i don't know what is it?

She had goal too, it was to become water pokemon master.

JOUTO:
-I think everyone knows this. But this has arguably the worst pacing in the series history. If I remember well, more than half of Joutou's episodes are fillers. And most of the non-fillers are simply fillers with an evolution or new move tackled in to save it from the filler status.

Im pretty sure Sinnoh had just as bad pacing with story being stretched out for four full years. Which resulted in rushed DP league, dragged out contest arc,along with too many episodes being wasted on pokemon training which was more negative than positive thing.

-Kasumi loses all the little character development she had from the Kanto days. And to make things worse, Takeshi too becomes stale.

Not true at all.
She received her own arc Whirl Cup, making steps forward to her goal of becoming water master, battling more frequent compared to Kanto. Whether it was against trainers like Sumomo,Harrison, with Poliwrath or assisting Ash in battling TR. She got some cool pokemon like Poliwhirl ending as her most reliable partner, or Corsola which added diversity to her team being half rock and proving to be one tough cookie hiding big power inside itself.

She also started to grow as person becoming more level headed and independent not needing to rely on Ash or Brock so much anymore, more self confident getting over complex of feeling less worthy compared to sisters, learned how to apply new strategy and develop skills as trainer still bringing comedy, fun interaction and conflict in main cast having her self doubts and problems making you feel that character is actually going somewhere.

Brock had several memorable moments where he could dusplay skills as beeder, like when taking care of young Stantler, learning how to prepare new potions in "Old Man Schukle" ,entered breeder convention meeting up with Suzy and returning Vulpix back to its original owner, got some cool pokemon like Pineco, as well his Zubat evolving all the way to Crobat. Brock didnt got a lot, but it ewas a hell lot more than he received in Kanto.

As for Hoenn i will agree how introduction of contests was nice and fresh thing to include in anime with May rivals being some of best we ever had(like Harley). I liked Ash maturity starting to take on mentors role to May and it was nice seeing group pokemon receive more screen time.
Brock got some nice focus there as well. He interacted well with May and Max, got his own starter, some really cool and funny pokemon like Ludicolo and had several noteworthy accomplishments. Like learning how to prepare different kind of food like pokeblocks, fighting TR with Steelix in gym,battling may in contest, starting to be interested in doctor calling, helped in solving several crisis like whole trouble with Spinda or Shiftry displaying his experience and knowledge as breeder etc.

Though lack of rivals for Ash, Max which seemed at times pointless, lack of comedy , villains being treated horribly(like Team Aqua and Magma) and some of May fluke wins in contests lacking believable development later down the road were series down point.

The OS are the best. I enjoyed watching them back then, it brings me good memories, it`s classic...Ash`s original team... then butterfree left, primeape, pidgeot, charizard, squirtle and bulbasaur(I know that he used them but it was never the same)
johto series were not good for me(except the silver conference championship)

Liked Hoenn because of May, really)
Sinnoh were too long and I didn`t like seein Darkrai and Latios in battle
Black and white ruined all...no Brock, others...new attacks(for example pikachu`s quick attack, iron tail and thunderbolt look awful)
and I am sure(unfortunately)that ash won`t recall his old pokemon in championship

Let me guess, they look awful to you because they don't glow white and end in an explosion anymore?

Yes, because it looks like steel, and when tail glowed white it was better
and Quick attack before was better. Pikachu used it not by not moving and then suddenly moving very fast
and now Thunderbolt looks worse then it was before

My favorite saga so far is Pokemon Best Wishes and Pokemon Advanced Generation.
BW:
- No Brock
-Better handeled characters and TRio
-Funny and unique plots and storylines. You never know what would happen in BW
-Funny and sweet interactions between the BW Trio. It's no longer Ash and the new main girl having a cool relationship while Brock gets ignored
- The animation's better
- Team Rocket are getting a bigger role in the anime unlike them bring the punchbag and clown of the show
- So many other awesome reasons :-)

I like the original season mainly because of nolagstia. and because my favorite female companion, Misty, is in it. And, also, because of the theme songs, because they capture the real feeling of the show, not focusing on friendship the whole time like in D/P.

I like Hoenn onward because of mang things. I like the character development in general in AG and the human-pokemon relationship development in DP and BW. I like the plot in general in Sinnoh, the Team Galactic arc was epic! And, I like the battles from Hoenn onward.

Also, in the OS, it was all about Ash, but in Hoenn onwards, they focused more on May, Dawn, Iris, and Cilan more. Poor Brock, he really dosen't get focused on until Sinnoh, but very little...

So, if I was forced to choose, I would choose Hoenn onwards because of plot and character improvements.

Os.
Reasons:1.It made me cry (Which hardly happens),made me laugh(Which again rarely happens),got me on my nerves;Literally,it made me change emotions.2.It had Misty and Brock in it (The very first anime characters that i'd seen).3.It had a remarkable theme song.4.The original trio,IMO,were much realistic.5.The Pokemons back then actually had a thing,what we call "Intelligence".As of now,they seem to be more of emotionless robots,designed to follow the orders of a human.

Sinnoh was the best IMO. The storytelling was great, but Brock always being there got old and he hardly did anything. That's really the only negative thing I can think of about Sinnoh.

Sinnoh>Kanto>Hoenn>Unova>Johto

I don't understand the poll options though. The title says favorite series, but the poll options are region names. There isn't even any option for Orange Isles, Best Wishes 2 or Battle Frontier. What the heck? It would have made more sense if the options were OS, AG, DP and BW/BW2.

1. Chemistry. I like chemistry between Ash, Iris, and Cilan
2. Rivals are epic. All rivals can participate the tournament
3. Character of the arc. So many unique COTA , especially for Luke, Montgomery
4. Team Rocket getting more serious
5. Popular Japanese Voice Actor/Actress
6. No Brock
7. One thing for sure, It's Trip yay

Proud claimer of Cyndaquil and Ezio Auditore from Assassin's Creed !!
Also proud claimer of Assassin's Creed 2 the game!!
Just became the proud claimer of the Marvel's Agent's of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show ^_^!!!

My favorite is Unova.
1. The main cast feels fresh and new.
2. The rivals all participate together in tournaments.
3. The fillers are slightly more interesting.
4. No rival is far superior to the others and makes the others seem like jokes minus Burgundy.

But it also has some flaws
1. The rivals rarely appear outside tournaments.
2. Ash's reserves rarely appear.
3. Trip loses in the first round too often.
4. The rivals and Ash don't use all their Pokemon enough and rely to much on one of their Pokemon.

Here are my thoughts on the pros and cons of each series. I will admit I haven't seen AG and Johto in quite some time but I'll tell you what I remember of them and then when I watch them again, I shall give you my final thoughts.

Kanto- Honestly from an entertainment perspective, this and Orange Islands were probably the best. Every episode had a unique feel to it and all the fillers were fun to watch. Ash was great here. Misty was great here. Brock was great here. Gary was great here. I loved some of Ash's Pokémon and I felt they all had good development at points in the show. They all had their unique personalities. I felt this had a lot of emotion and was actually funny. TRio was great here. The only downsides are that I felt Gary and especially Giovanni were way underused during this saga and I felt there could have been more done with them. The battles weren't the best and Ash did earn most of his badges by pity badges. I honestly didn't mind the pity badges. This saga had great arcs which were really fun. So yeah, Kanto is my favorite.

Orange Islands- A GREAT filler saga. They actually continued to develop some of the characters, Ash grew a lot here and continued to develop and the Charizard storyline was great. A lot of the episodes were still funny and emotional and some of the episodes were really really good in my opinion such as Ash vs Drake (which was probably the best battle the series has had up until that point), "Pikachu Re-Volts," "Charizard Chills," and "Pokémon Food Fight."

Johto- Honestly, I don't think it as bad as people say. Ash finally began forming strategies during his gym battles, TR was better represented as an organization even if a lot of their stories weren't connected, Mewtwo's story was brought to a satisfying conclusion and some his Pokémon were likeable. Master Quest was especially good and the League was great. Ash and Gary's rivalry came to a great conclusion and I enjoyed some of the episodes a lot. Yeah, the filler formula that we would see in AG and DP started here but there were still great episodes. Wobbuffet was a great addition and even if TRio became less intimidating here, they were still funny characters.

AG- Like I said, I don't remember much but I thought May was a great addition who went through this great, great journey. She went through actual development since she started as the girl who hated Pokémon and later became a great coordinator. Her rivals, Drew and Harley, were great and 2 of the best rivals and well handled rivals the show has had. May herself was likeable and was a good Misty replacement. I'd take May over Johto Misty anyday honestly. Contests were a great addition. TRio weren't horrible here but they started to go downward. The Gym Battles were great, I liked Ash's team. A flaw with the show was that Ash didn't have a major rival but I still thought the Hoenn League was good if you look at it from a battle perspective. A lot of enjoyable battles.

Battle Frontier- A really well done filler saga that brought back old fan favorite Pokémon and gave Ash some really good battles. May's contest journey came to a great conclusion. I actually really like Solidad. I thought she was a great rival and Drew and Harley were great as always. The filler episodes weren't all that memorable but some were enjoyable and it is a short series so it doesn't take long to watch. Ash vs May was a great way to end the series.

DP- DP is a tricky season to judge honestly. The pros are that the battles were great, the gym leaders were well developed and memorable. Paul was a great rival in my opinion. He is the sort of character who you love to hate. He was just so cruel and seeing him lose to Ash was one of the best moments in any Pokémon series. Zoey serves her role as a mentor. Kenny could be fun at times. I thought he had a great bond with Dawn and I thought his last episode was great. Nando was interesting but terribly underused. Ursula played her role as the mean girl well. Barry didn't do it for me honestly. I didn't find him engaging or funny and he could be a jerk at points. Conway was hilarious. The League was great. I love how mysterious Tobias was. While terribly underused, J and Galactic were entertaining villains for the anime. And I love Dawn and her contest arc. The bad parts are TRio were terrible and obnoxious. They were at their absolute worst in this saga. The fillers were very hit or miss because the TRio basically ruined a lot of it with their so called humor.

Best Wishes- Ash is good here. Iris is well developed and well focused on. Cilan doesn't work for me. His humor doesn't amuse me. Team Rocket as an organization is the best they have ever been. TRio are the best they've been since the OS. Team Rocket is the best handled villain team ever in the anime. Giovanni returns and Zager and Pierce are both great characters. Trip is interesting but not well handled, Stephan does well as a competitive rival but he's not very interesting and the name joke was done already. Bianca is just not funny. She is not well handled either. Burgundy was funny at first but is now treated like a joke and she is really going nowhere. Georgia is well handled and is a good rival for Iris. I really like Professor Juniper and her father. The League was one of the weaker ones

I have to agree with poster above me about Johto.
I rewatched it few months ago and after refreshing my memory i believe many things are blown out of proportion with series not being that bad as some make it out to be at all. I mean yeah you could say there wasn't enough character development and there happened some bad plotholes like GS ball drop, but it had also many memorable moments as well.

In my opinion when we ignore some pretty bad fillers, Johto was fairly enjoyable series . Battles were a lot better compared to first 2 seasons with Ash winning badges legitimately, Misty and Brock actually battled more receiving some notable focus and growth ,we got several great arcs and memorable gym leaders, return from older characters(like Todd, Duplica, Ritchie or Aya) and there are many episodes from this region i always like to go back and watch being well written and enjoyable.

I also to this day actually find that original trio had better chemistry in Johto than any other group which came afterwards. I suppose point could be made how Ash and Misty argued less but this was rather sign of friendship growing stronger than anything else, with dynamic still being entertaining.I remember they still had comic rivalry between themselves and Misty still liked to tease him frequently making jokes while sometimes getting in clash, and while there wasn't as much fights between them compared to Kanto she often came up with snarky comments , being annoyed with Ash stupidity who always backhanded comments directed to him.

And while there could have been done i feel Brock and Misty compared to Kanto still got more. Brock had several memorable moments where he could display skills as breeder, , got some cool pokemon like Pineco, as well his Zubat evolving all the way to Crobat.

Misty received her own arc Whirl Cup making steps forward to her goal of becoming water master, battled more frequent compared to Kanto and got some cool pokemon like Poliwhirl or Corsola which added diversity to her team .
Aside from that she started to grow as person becoming more level headed and independent while keeping that tomboyish, adventurous spirit.Got over annoyance toward sisters,bonded with several characters or pokemon and learned how to apply new strategy and develop skills as trainer casting fresh, new angle to her story.

You can say Ash started to grew as trainer too becoming more caring toward his pokemon. Unlike in Kanto he was winning badges through skill and strategy in Johto gyms with most gym leaders being portrayed in interesting and unique light. Additionally he became less impulsive not being same childish kid we used to watch in Kanto days becoming more calculated and strategic which can be noticed in his battles, and he concluded rivalry with childhood rival Gary in one of most epic battles this show had.

That endgame between Charizard and Blastoise was one of most memorable battles in this show.

Not to mention departure at end of Johto was one of most memorable ones showing how strong bond original cast had concluding OS on sweet, yet sad note.
Unfortunately this was also Misty last saga as main, being pity to see one of most interesting characters go who had lot of fresh potential about dreams and past to work upon.

I also agree that Hoenn series managed to add new refreshing perspective to pokemon series. I enjoyed in May contest arc adding fresh note to character and it was intriguing to follow growth from insecure girl which didn't cared about pokemon to more self reliant coordinator which grew to appreciate pokemon setting up what she wants to do in life. Addition of rivals like peculiar, feminine Harley whose dishonesty and dirty tricks gave comedy and tension to storyline mixed with Drew arrogance which provided clash worked as extra flavor making everything all that better.

There were set higher standards in terms of battles and it was refreshing to see progressive sign of maturity Ash character went through becoming more levelheaded,calm and self-critic wanting to learn on mistakes while keeping his bratty and funny aspect of character. He also became "grown up enough"to take mentor role on someone else which portrayed Ash in different yet interesting and unique light.